Displaying items by tag: Beirut

Dave Bookless of A Rocha writes: ‘On 4-5 October I spoke at a symposium on “Ecumenical Perspectives on Climate Change” held in Beirut by the Middle East Council of Churches. It was remarkable to see all the diverse cardinals, metropolitans, bishops and archimandrites, and hundreds of robed and bearded priests and seminary students, all coming together to address creation care. All the churches of the region were represented - an amazing witness to Christian unity. The whole event was televised across the Middle East. Amazingly, all the Churches of the Middle East have agreed to a joint statement and call to action which will be presented at COP28, due to be held in Dubai at the end of November.’

Israeli fighter jets have launched air raids on neighbouring Lebanon following a second day of rocket fire from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Fighter jets struck the launch sites and infrastructure from which the rockets were launched. Israeli aircraft routinely target Palestinian armed groups in Gaza and suspected Hezbollah or Iranian targets in Syria, but this was the first time since 2014 that they had hit targets in Lebanon. Previous acknowledged military actions mostly involved artillery shelling. Israel fought a 2006 war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is the dominant force in southern Lebanon. The border has been mostly quiet since then. The escalation came as thousands of grief-stricken Lebanese took part in a protest march on the first anniversary of a devastating explosion in Beirut that killed over 200. Lebanon’s situation has worsened since then - economic crisis, poverty, increasing, Covid, no hospital beds, no medicine, no electricity, no fuel - people feel that the government has forgotten they exist.